Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies

Lost City is an (H5) ordinary chondrite that fell in Oklahoma, USA, January 3, 1970, at 8:14 PM. The many witnesses described the associated fireball lighting up the town, and a Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Special Report (#336) compared its brightness to that of the full moon.  The report goes on to say that: Sonic booms…

Delve into current research at the Center with this periodic news feature, and catch a glimpse of what our students and scientists are working on right now! Ph.D. Candidate Emilie Dunham is melting a mixture of oxide powders in a platinum crucible to make a new standard for SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry) analysis of…

Delve into current research at the Center with this periodic news feature, and catch a glimpse of what our students and scientists are working on right now! The Center recently installed a new Aridus II Desolvating Nebulizer System; this highly specialized sample introduction equipment is used to increase analyte element sensitivity during isotopic analysis of…

San Francisco Mountains, IVA iron meteorite.  Image ⓒ ASU/CMS.

To welcome this year’s incoming ASU freshmen, the Center for Meteorite Studies has partnered with the School of Earth and Space Exploration to dedicate a meteorite to the Class of 2020. The Class of 2020's meteorite is actually a collection of spheres cut from the Gibeon iron meteorite.  Gibeon was found in Namibia, in 1836,…